Iron Throne: Kingdom — Another Failed Game Release By Netmarble

Summary: Netmarble’s newly released game Iron Throne: Kingdom is a failure based on App Annie data. While the stock did fall to a low of 123,000 KRW in August 2017, it has since recovered since April 2018 due to a timely 25%  investment in a Korean music label that is home to the K-Pop sensation …

MZ (Machine Zone) and Its Satori Platform

An Outline of an Decentralized Alternative to the Order Book   A Decentralized Alternative to the Order Book   Machine Zone (MZ): A $10 Billion Dollar Unicorn in the Making   Edge Computing Use Cases for MZ’s (Machine Zone) Platform Machine Zone and The Perversity of Unicorn Lists   Machine Zone (MZ): A $4 Billion …

Netmarble Games IPO: A Fast Fade for Lineage 2?

Introduction Netmarble is the largest mobile game publisher in South Korea. The company has just secured investor commitments to buy 16.9 Million shares worth $2.3 Billion in a May 2017 IPO on the Korea KOSPI stock exchange.   This IPO would value the company at $11 Billion based on investor demand at the high end …

A Unicorn Startup’s Kiss of Death: Kabam Field

The year 2016 will be remembered as a year when titillating stories came out about Unicorn excesses — Dropbox’s Chrome Panda sculpture, Hampton Creek’s covert buy-backs of Just Mayo inventory, and Zenefits’ sex in the stairwell. This is a story about Kabam, another fallen Unicorn, and its excesses. More than just descriptive, we analyze its history to …

Machine Zone (MZ): A $10 Billion Dollar Unicorn in the Making

(Original publication date: 6/7/16) (Our suggested “moonshot” for MZ: ending urban traffic congestion via a real-time pricing platform + “connected car”) (Our suggested new tagline for MZ: “put a price on it.”  Shoutout to Portlandia for its “put a bird on it” tagline for a hand-crafted gift store capturing its big picture strategy) Short Postscript …